Wednesday, October 5, 2005

Poet and arbiter of taste Boni Joi will argue yes, novelist and Hoboken newspaper editor Caren Lissner will argue no, at the next Jinx Athenaeum, Wednesday, October 5, at 8pm (Michel “The Brain” Evanchik will moderate and Jinx Rational Agent Todd Seavey will host). So join us downstairs at Lolita bar, northeast corner of Broome and Allen on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, one block north and three west of the Delancey Street subway stop (free admission, cash bar).

And four other matters:

First: here are two of what I hope will be a trilogy of distinct articles, based on my Phillips Foundation research on the topic, about New Orleans and musical tradition (when Katrina and the Waves do the inevitable tribute concert, I’ll do something more 80s-themed):

Third: meanwhile, Jinx attendee and Institute of Ideas associate Jean Smith and others launch a new and different debate society with money and fancy signs and everything — see http://nysalon.org/ — this Friday, Sept. 30, at 6:30pm at the CUNY Grad Center (34th and 5th), with Brian Lehrer taping it and all, just the way I would have tried to do if they’d put me in charge of the Smith Foundation, but I’m not complaining. Their first debate will be on “The Future of Politics” and will feature Frank Furedi, Richard Sennett, and Russell Jacoby, as described in greater detail here: http://nysalon.org/recent-events/index.html . These people will be very useful someday when you’re in a game of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon and need to link the Reason Foundation to the Revolutionary Communist Party, so come meet them.

Fourth and finally: Jinx needs digital projection capabilities! Nov. will be Steve “As Seen on TV” Duncan’s thrilling slide presentation on urban exploration, the dark art upon which Jinx was founded, and if anyone has a Mac-compatible digital projector attachment to help make it possible, let me know, or contact him directly at: Steve[at]undercity.org

In the meantime, though: Oct. 5 is the NJ/NYC smackdown. The winner may surprise you, maybe, possibly. (And if there are topics you’d volunteer to debate in ‘06, let me know.)